Exhibition of Members New Work

New monumental entrance stairs to Brunswick House, Georgian Mansion in Vauxhall, Grade II listed for Murray John Architects Ltd.

STUDIO HAVN, Chelsea Gate Studios, Studio 5, 115 Harwood Road, London, SW6 4QL tanis@studiohavn.com studiohavn.com 07401 299 652

Hinton St George, Somerset: Street scene.

Hinton St George is a picturesque village in South Somerset consisting of houses almost exclusively constructed in local Ham stone.

Our proposal for ten new houses is conceived as an extension to the village high street, with half the houses situated on the existing road. A new lane will provide access to the remaining houses, as well as two distinct public spaces: a small village green and a hardscaped parking court. The architecture and materials seek precedent in the adjacent conservation area, with walls formed in Ham stone or clad in timber, and roofs covered in clay double Roman tiles or natural slates. The lane will be a shared surface, with no pavements, and the houses will have small planting strips to their frontage. Walls, gates and trees assist in defining the public realm. The project is a few months from completion on site.

New folly at Wolverton Hall, Worcestershire for Nicholas Coleridge CBE

A temple to pleasure, a writer’s eyrie, an eyecatcher with rooftop views of Bredon Hill and the surrounding countryside, Nicholas Coleridge commissioned Quinlan Terry to design a folly in 2016.

The tower is octagonal with octagonal clasping buttress forming pinnacles at the parapet. An octagonal turret leads out onto the roof terrace. It is constructed with 2-inch handmade bricks to match the Queen Anne house, and with contrasting stone architraves around the doors and windows and the Coleridge coat of arms above the door.

An entrance hall at ground floor level leads up to a first floor sitting room with a high ceiling, tall ogee windows and an open fire. From a here a stair leads on up to the roof.

This may be a small building, but it has a big architectural scale and set within the mature gardens the hope is that it will look as though it has always been there.

The building was completed in November 2019.

‘Fanciful fondant’

oil on canvas 40x50cm

Georgian Town House extension, London, 2020

House in Kensington, London

The house was fully refurbished and extended to a very high standard to suit modern patterns of living. One of the principle features is the stone cantilevered staircase on the ground floor. The top-lit orangery extension at the rear of the house uses the same architectural language as the neighbouring buildings; namely a polite and fairly understated classicism.

Design for a new house in Hampstead

New housing at Tregunnel Hill, Newquay, Cornwall

Tregunnel Hill is a residential led development on vacant land near the town centre at Newquay in Cornwall. It was the precursor for Nansledan, an exemplary, dense, mixed use, sustainable extension that is distinctively Cornish in character and closely tailored to the needs of the inhabitants of Newquay. The masterplan includes up to 4,000 homes and is being built out a rate of about 100 homes/year, with an ambition to create at least 1 job per household. 30% of the homes are affordable. Work started on site in 2012.

New cast stone for a project by Ben Pentreath in Poundbury.

The Goring is London’s last family-owned luxury hotel, a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace and reputed to be a firm Royal favourite. As part of the transformation of the Bar and Lounge, we were commissioned to create a wall of high-relief, sculptural plasterwork featuring mythical sea creatures and marine life.

Detail of the completed medusa panel in cast plaster. The sculpture features a medusa jellyfish surrounded by various types of seaweed including Furbelows, Purple Laver and Bladderwrack.

Photo © Ben Everett

An image from our primary ongoing project, the first phase of which is under construction. The ambition is to create a piece of spectacular classical architecture, emulating rather than imitating historical precedents, while adapting to the brief, site and contemporary construction techniques.

A rendered view of the giant order columns belonging to the second phase, showing the interface between the monolithic Rosso di Verona shafts and the projecting, bracketed balconies on the upper level. The capitals are ‘placeholders’, yet to be custom-designed like the two capitals in the accompanying image.

New-Build Country House in Surrey, 2020

The concept of the villa follows the picturesque tradition of the English 18th century Villa in the Park, often found in the architecture of Nash and his contemporaries. This is in keeping with the free-standing villas in the neighbouring context. The envelope is of load-bearing Portland Broadcroft whitbed stone.

The new entrance wing of a large Cotswold Farmhouse project.

The ridge was designed to undulate to look settled into the historic setting.

Of the tables, the Delhi Occasional is special to me because it shows Edwin Lutyens’ love of the interaction of geometric forms – square, triangle, circle. It also features the archetypal EL detail of Tuscan column legs and bun feet. I spotted exactly this table in miniature forming the base of a pair of candlesticks at Campion Hall on the altar of the chapel. It is always interesting how he repeated designs. The hoop base also marries the square and the circle though the legs are quite a departure for him.

This is Sir Edwin Lutyens’ drawing of the table in the previous image which shows how the geometry is worked out.

Shortly before the Coronavirus lock down I visited Versailles with my family.

Walking up to the front I was struck by how unimpressive it was despite all the money spent on it; it feels like a wasted opportunity. The palace itself seems too small in the context of all the outbuildings that it almost disappears. I later learnt that I am not the first person to make this observation, Jean-Baptiste Colbert a minister of finances during Louis XIV’s reign felt that his boss had turned Versailles into an ‘a little man with big arms and a large head’.

The garden side is not much better. The palace façade monotonously repeats the same bay configuration with little variation for its whole quarter of a mile length. The silhouette is dull and the whole composition is lacking in drama or excitement.

When I returned home and aided by the extra time which the coronavirus lockdown has generated, I set myself the task of redesigning Versailles.

For the front elevation to get over the problem of the diminutive central block I added a building to separate the Cour Royale from the Cour des Statues. In the middle of this block is a triumphal arch which frames the original chateau in the distance. By adding this building, the small scale of the centre of the palace is masked and give both courts a more pleasing proportion. The separation would also give a more interesting and varied arrive sequence.

For the garden elevation I propose adding a large central block to break the monotony and to make a more interesting silhouette.

Thomas Robinson Architects are currently working on three projects in the Scot`s Baronial Style. The style first emerged in the 16th and 17th century Scotland and then strongly re-emerged in the 19th century and continued into the early twentieth century. To a lesser extent it has continued ever since. It is a recognisably Scottish architectural language born originally from defensive keeps, peel towers, and castles but as architectural influence from Europe grew in Britain, the style was developed in Scotland with renaissance or classical elements being incorporated. Later it was adopted to different degrees by arts and crafts architects and even in art nouveau buildings by Mackintosh for example. There is a great deal of French influence due to Scotland`s relationship with France as well as Italian influence. It is a style that allows for rich architectural expression and variety. For a client looking for a traditional house that is at home in Scotland, it is a natural choice.

A design for a new Arts and Crafts style house ‘Fraine Holme’ which is currently under construction.

A recently built classical villa style house, in County Meath, Ireland.

Corinthian:

My prints follow a variety of themes but often have some link back to architecture. The process itself has been used for nearly a century to reproduce accurate blueprints of architectural drawings.

The new Walsh Family Hall of Architecture is also a school of urban design and the way buildings work in relation to one another is a significant part of the students’ education. The arrangement of the buildings within the court demonstrates that this is not something that is left to chance, but is the result of careful consideration: of the relationship between the different surrounding buildings; the balance of monumental architecture and ordinary building and the way monuments, and landscaped features, are sited within the space.

A new house in Hamburg

A recently completed restoration in Chelsea, London.

Restored using traditional methods.

Replacement Regency villa in Hampshire

We proposed a ‘butterfly’ plan most for this replacement house on the Solent, partly to take advantage of the stunning views in all directions, but also to fulfil the client’s brief to create sheltered, intimate garden areas in an otherwise exposed coastal location. The house forms part of a collection of new structures that includes a pool pavilion, walled garden, boathouse and garage. The use of buff-colour rendered walls, natural slate roofs and grey/yellow brick outbuildings draws some inspiration from the nearby Exbury Estate. We intentionally kept the classical language low-key, wishing the interest of the structure to be derived from its elegant and dynamic butterfly form.

One of a pair of new houses in Tunbridge Wells

Lakeside House, Hampshire

New house with ‘butterfly’ plan form to take advantage of the views over the lake to the north and forming sun catching courtyards to the south and west. The design includes a lower level covered swimming pool with direct access to the lake on one side and a private sunken garden on the other. House completed in July 2020 but landscaping work ongoing.

'Nevile's Gate, Trinity College, Cambridge'

Mixed media.

Reinstatement of lost glazing bars, fanlight and front door, along with a new design of lanterns each side of the entrance.

New Levine building at Trinity College, Oxford

The Levine building is the last major site for a new building on the main College estate. It houses a new multi-purpose auditorium; teaching rooms; library extension; common room; admin block and student bedrooms. It has been designed in a restrained classical manner that embraces the distinctive architectural character of the College. It has four parts that share common cores, resulting in a compact plan and an overall scale that sit comfortably both with the neighbouring listed buildings, and the wider Conservation Area. Work started on site in 2019.

Mixed use development, Amesbury, 13 dwellings and High Street frontage commercial space, now complete.

A terrace of simple houses in a new garden square in Poundbury. Commissioned by the Duchy of Cornwall, built by C G Fry & Son, and designed by George Saumarez Smith of ADAM Architecture.

Design for a new house in Hampstead, London

Hinton St George, Somerset: House on the Green

Hinton St George is a picturesque village in South Somerset consisting of houses almost exclusively constructed in local Ham stone.

Our proposal for ten new houses is conceived as an extension to the village high street, with half the houses situated on the existing road. A new lane will provide access to the remaining houses, as well as two distinct public spaces: a small village green and a hardscaped parking court. The architecture and materials seek precedent in the adjacent conservation area, with walls formed in Ham stone or clad in timber, and roofs covered in clay double Roman tiles or natural slates. The lane will be a shared surface, with no pavements, and the houses will have small planting strips to their frontage. Walls, gates and trees assist in defining the public realm. The project is a few months from completion on site.

Medieval Manor House refurbishment, Gloucestershire

The major refurbishment of a Listed Manor house dating back to the 15th Century, including the sensitive modernisation of a number of surrounding estate buildings set within the rolling grounds of a 200 acre Gloucestershire estate

The Goring is London’s last family-owned luxury hotel, a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace and reputed to be a firm Royal favourite. As part of the transformation of the Bar and Lounge, we were commissioned to create a wall of high-relief, sculptural plasterwork featuring mythical sea creatures and marine life.

The Goring Hotel Lounge:

The new decorative plaster wall featuring mythical sea creatures and marine life. Designed and made by Geoffrey Preston, for Russell Sage Studio and The Goring hotel. Photo © Nick Rochowski

The new Walsh Family Hall of Architecture:

A staircase wraps around the column of the Stoa at the east end so that the half landing is raised well above the surrounding floor to stage a speaker, much like a traditional pulpit at the end of a nave.

New private house in Benin City, Nigeria

A new private house with guest accommodation, staff building, swimming pool and outdoor entertaining area with a sculptured garden that blends the details of local Benin Obu culture with some of the historic Colonial detailing found in Nigeria.

‘Tea Party’

oil on canvas 60 x 90cm

New cast stone supplied by Haddonstone Ltd

Versailles Redesigned

Shortly before the Coronavirus lock down I visited Versailles with my family.

Walking up to the front I was struck by how unimpressive it was despite all the money spent on it; it feels like a wasted opportunity. The palace itself seems too small in the context of all the outbuildings that it almost disappears. I later learnt that I am not the first person to make this observation, Jean-Baptiste Colbert a minister of finances during Louis XIV’s reign felt that his boss had turned Versailles into an ‘a little man with big arms and a large head’.

The garden side is not much better. The palace façade monotonously repeats the same bay configuration with little variation for its whole quarter of a mile length. The silhouette is dull and the whole composition is lacking in drama or excitement.

When I returned home and aided by the extra time which the coronavirus lockdown has generated, I set myself the task of redesigning Versailles.

For the front elevation to get over the problem of the diminutive central block I added a building to separate the Cour Royale from the Cour des Statues. In the middle of this block is a triumphal arch which frames the original chateau in the distance. By adding this building, the small scale of the centre of the palace is masked and give both courts a more pleasing proportion. The separation would also give a more interesting and varied arrive sequence.

For the garden elevation I propose adding a large central block to break the monotony and to make a more interesting silhouette.

Design for a rear extension to a lateral conversion in North London

Reviving an old trick:

A new cantilever stone staircase

Ionic:

My prints follow a variety of themes but often have some link back to architecture. The process itself has been used for nearly a century to reproduce accurate blueprints of architectural drawings.

Design for a new country house.

Apollodorus Architecture is a London-based practice headed by the architect, writer and historian Mark Wilson Jones. Our work, which encompasses classical and traditional design, is rooted in research, scholarship and the knowledge and experience of historic architecture, particularly that of the antiquity and the Italian Renaissance.

The image show fragments of our primary ongoing project, the first phase of which is under construction. The ambition is to create a piece of spectacular classical architecture, emulating rather than imitating historical precedents, while adapting to the brief, site and contemporary construction techniques.

Selected samples of marble elements of the first phase laid out to be examined by the client prior; construction is now up to roof level.

Proposal for a new house in Cambridgeshire, 2019. Entrance hall.

Design for a Cottage Orne

New folly at Wolverton Hall, Worcestershire for Nicholas Coleridge CBE

Linocut by Eric Cartwright

A temple to pleasure, a writer’s eyrie, an eyecatcher with rooftop views of Bredon Hill and the surrounding countryside, Nicholas Coleridge commissioned Quinlan Terry to design a folly in 2016.

The tower is octagonal with octagonal clasping buttress forming pinnacles at the parapet. An octagonal turret leads out onto the roof terrace. It is constructed with 2-inch handmade bricks to match the Queen Anne house, and with contrasting stone architraves around the doors and windows and the Coleridge coat of arms above the door.

An entrance hall at ground floor level leads up to a first floor sitting room with a high ceiling, tall ogee windows and an open fire. From a here a stair leads on up to the roof.

This may be a small building, but it has a big architectural scale and set within the mature gardens the hope is that it will look as though it has always been there.

The building was completed in November 2019.

Scots Baronial

Thomas Robinson Architects are currently working on three projects in the Scot`s Baronial Style. The style first emerged in the 16th and 17th century Scotland and then strongly re-emerged in the 19th century and continued into the early twentieth century. To a lesser extent it has continued ever since. It is a recognisably Scottish architectural language born originally from defensive keeps, peel towers, and castles but as architectural influence from Europe grew in Britain, the style was developed in Scotland with renaissance or classical elements being incorporated. Later it was adopted to different degrees by arts and crafts architects and even in art nouveau buildings by Mackintosh for example. There is a great deal of French influence due to Scotland`s relationship with France as well as Italian influence. It is a style that allows for rich architectural expression and variety. For a client looking for a traditional house that is at home in Scotland, it is a natural choice.

New-build classical villa in Kazakhstan, 2019

The building is designed as a freestanding villa with two major Ionic porticos to the entrance and rear garden façade, along with a separate pavilion building.

The flank elevations of the villa include stone porches and winter garden pavilions. The building facades are constructed in natural limestone, with bronze windows, a copper roof and copper ornaments. The solid Kyrgyz limestone capitals and columns as well as the pediments and other decorative features are carved locally in single solid pieces by artisans and masons.

Lakeside House, Hampshire

New house with ‘butterfly’ plan form to take advantage of the views over the lake to the north and forming sun catching courtyards to the south and west. The design includes a lower level covered swimming pool with direct access to the lake on one side and a private sunken garden on the other. House completed in July 2020 but landscaping work ongoing.

'West Door, Leominster Priory, Herefordshire'

Mixed media.

New private house in Benin City, Nigeria

A new private house with guest accommodation, staff building, swimming pool and outdoor entertaining area with a sculptured garden that blends the details of local Benin Obu culture with some of the historic Colonial detailing found in Nigeria.

A recently completed restoration in Chelsea, London

House in Kensington, London

The house was fully refurbished and extended to a very high standard to suit modern patterns of living. One of the principle features is the stone cantilevered staircase on the ground floor. The top-lit orangery extension at the rear of the house uses the same architectural language as the neighbouring buildings; namely a polite and fairly understated classicism.

Replacement Regency villa in Hampshire

We proposed a ‘butterfly’ plan most for this replacement house on the Solent, partly to take advantage of the stunning views in all directions, but also to fulfil the client’s brief to create sheltered, intimate garden areas in an otherwise exposed coastal location. The house forms part of a collection of new structures that includes a pool pavilion, walled garden, boathouse and garage. The use of buff-colour rendered walls, natural slate roofs and grey/yellow brick outbuildings draws some inspiration from the nearby Exbury Estate. We intentionally kept the classical language low-key, wishing the interest of the structure to be derived from its elegant and dynamic butterfly form.